Talha Rehman for BeyondHeadlines
Any student of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) hanging around the campus can easily spot the children of the construction workers roaming around in the campus, especially during evening hours. Children must be sent to school, as it’s their fundamental right.
But the irony is that the children’s parents construct the buildings in which we are educated, but these children have very limited or no educational opportunities. Most of these children keep migrating with their parents every few months.
Realizing the significance of education for children, an initiative named ‘ABC Campaign’ has been started. It is an attempt to look into the condition of these children and provide whatever little help we can in educating them and if possible get them enrolled in some recognized school so that they can be mainstreamed.
ABC… Campaign was started in February 2012 as a drive to teach the children of construction workers in Jamia by Jamia students. The program was supported by Social Service Club, JMI in collaboration with the NGO Pravaah. The committed students of Jamia pushed their effort in making brighter life of the kids of construction workers under the guidance of Dr. Habibul Rahman, Convenor of the Social Service Club and Ms. Naghma Abidi and Mr. Ramiz from Pravah.
The campaign started with an orientation program attended by 40 volunteers most of whom were students of Jamia. The orientation program was followed by an exposure visit to the Kusumpur Pahadi, one of the largest slum areas in Delhi, where the volunteers interacted with the community and devised teaching strategies under the guidance of Ms. Rashi, a resource person there. She has been teaching children within that community for years. It was during this visit that the volunteers get exposure to the real working conditions and developed an understanding of the issues related to education. They accordingly formed teaching strategies for non-school going children and other children from underprivileged families.
The volunteers began by teaching the workers of Jamia Central Canteen and the children of the construction workers who lived beside the then under construction Jamia polytechnic building. Each volunteer devoted 1 or 2 hours per week to teach and involve the children in activity based learning in the evenings. The program was carried out successfully for several months before it was paused for some time in 2013.
The members of the ABC Campaign have now decided to re-launch the program in a new and better way and we invite students from all departments, faculties and centres in Jamia to join us and contribute by devoting some of their leisure hours for this cause. It would be great if we could help the children in learning and building aspirations for a better life. Those interested in joining ABC campaign can contact the following persons:
Interested students can also join ABC Campaign page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
You may also contact following persons for further details:
1. Asrar ul Haque: 9650759585
2. Zakir Riyaz: 8802519419
3. Malik Faizan: 9540210508
(The author is a student of Jamia Milli Islamia, New Delhi.)
